History of Rome

​From Illyricum two legates, C. Licinius Nerva and P. Decius, reported that the army of the Illyrians had been defeated, King Gentius captured, and that Illyricum was under the sway of the Roman people.

​For these achievements, performed under the leadership and auspices of the praetor L. Anicius, the senate decreed a thanksgiving of three days. They were proclaimed by the consul for the fourth day before the Ides, the third day before the Ides, and the day before the Ides of November.

​Some writers have recorded that the Rhodian legates, who had not yet been dismissed, after the victory was announced, were summoned into the senate, as if to make a mockery of their foolish pride.

​There Agepolis, their leader, spoke as follows: that legates had been sent by the Rhodians to bring about peace between the Romans and Perseus, ​because that war was heavy and disadvantageous to all Greece, and costly and damaging to the Romans themselves;

​that the fortune of the Roman people had done well, because, the war having ended otherwise, it had given the Romans an opportunity of congratulating themselves on an outstanding victory. These were the words spoken by the Rhodian. It was answered by the senate: that the Rhodians had sent that embassy not out of concern for the interests of Greece, nor for the expenses of the Roman people, but on behalf of Perseus.

​For if there had been that concern which was pretended, then legates ought to have been sent at the time when Perseus, having led his army into Thessaly, was for two years besieging some Greek cities and terrifying others with the threat of arms;

​at that time no mention of peace was made by the Rhodians. Only after they had heard that the Romans had overcome the mountain passes and crossed into Macedonia, and that Perseus was held blockaded, had the Rhodians then sent their embassy, for no other purpose than to rescue Perseus from imminent danger. With this answer the legates were dismissed.